Key facts
- Russian President Vladimir Putin's top economic envoy, Kirill Dmitriev, and AfD co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla are preparing to meet.
- The planned meeting aims to discuss restarting Russian gas supplies to Germany.
- The meeting is tentatively scheduled for March, contingent on a peace framework between Russia and Ukraine.
- The AfD has recently seen electoral success, becoming the biggest party in a state election in Saxony-Anhalt.
- The AfD advocates for ending the boycott of Russian oil and gas to bolster Germany's economy.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's top economic envoy and the leadership of Germany's far-right AfD party are preparing to meet next year to discuss restarting gas supplies to Europe's biggest economy, two people familiar with the plan said. The discussions for a meeting as early as March underline the close relations between Moscow and the AfD, which is Germany's most popular party with voters.
The meeting would be attended by Kirill Dmitriev, a close adviser to Putin who heads Russia's sovereign wealth fund, as well as AfD co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla. A spokesperson for the AfD and a representative for Dmitriev declined to comment.
Before sanctions were imposed over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia supplied more than a third of Germany's crude oil imports and more than half of its natural gas. The meeting would only occur if a peace framework was agreed between Russia and Ukraine, and organizers hoped it would bring together the AfD, Russia, and the United States. Possible locations for the summit included Israel, the United Arab Emirates, or India.
Weidel has previously advocated for an end to the boycott of Russian oil and gas to bolster Germany's economy. Dmitriev was present at a meeting this month in Moscow with US representatives Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, who organizers hoped would also attend the gas meeting to examine reopening the Nord Stream gas pipelines. However, a senior US official told Reuters that Witkoff and Kushner have not been informed about or invited to the proposed summit.
While any gathering would be symbolic as the AfD does not govern, the preparations highlight the fragility of Germany's political system, with the AfD's electoral success testing mainstream parties' refusal to work with the far-right. The AfD recently won a major victory in a state election in Saxony-Anhalt and faces another test in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the Nord Stream pipelines enter Germany.
The American Chamber of Commerce in Moscow welcomed the idea, with President Robert Agee calling it "a positive and timely step" that could create a broader platform for discussing significant issues. Germany has struggled to recover from the shutdown of the Nord Stream pipelines, some of which were crippled by explosions in September 2022.
However, any effort to restart Russian gas supplies or Nord Stream would face fierce resistance in Germany and among its allies, particularly in Eastern Europe. Green lawmaker Michael Kellner stated, "Germany cannot become dependent on Russia again," and called reopening Nord Stream "treason" and a misuse of energy as a "hybrid weapon" by Putin. Roderich Kiesewetter, a member of parliament from the Christian Democrats, warned that the AfD meeting could embolden those in his party who favor buying Russian gas, adding that "Russia uses energy, especially Nord Stream, as a hybrid weapon for military purposes. Reopening Nord Stream would be a disaster for European security and isolate Germany."
The AfD frames its call for resuming Russian gas supplies as pragmatic, with Weidel describing "cheap energy from Russia" as "the secret of the success of 'Made in Germany.'" The party hopes the meeting will showcase its foreign policy competence and highlight the government's inaction on high energy prices.